A Gift of a Heart
by Alexa Piper
Summary: A bank robbery goes wrong and Maddie takes a bullet straight through her heart. She dies. Or, at least, that's what she thinks. A continuation of Cordria's oneshot.
1. Chapter 1

**This is a continuation of Cordria's oneshot, which can be found on her account as chapter 81 of 'Nova Shots'. The first chapter of this story is Cordria's original work, and I'll continue in chapter 2.**

* * *

It didn't hurt nearly as much as she was expecting.

Maddie stared at her fingers, covered in blood, then down to the hole on her chest. Right over her heart. There was a strange silence in her ears. Her heart wasn't beating. Maybe someone was screaming.

Danny? Her eyes came up, the world already fading away, looking for her son. Body rapidly going numb and limp, she collapsed.

Darkness claimed her. Cold hands seemed to grab her shoulders and tug her towards her afterlife, pull her soul though a doorway ripped into Heaven, and drop her onto a bed of clouds.

Then there was the nothingness of death.

Forever passed. Or maybe just seconds. Then there was something again. Sensation. A pressure on her back. A coldness lancing through her soul. And the strange quiet of not having a heartbeat.

Somehow her eyes opened. Green. Fuzzy. Empty.

Her hand moved, coming up to press against her face. To rub at her eyes. She could feel her skin, warm and pliable. She could smell her perfume, just a little. Something was wrong. Very wrong.

Slowly she sat up. It hurt, the same deep kind of ache that the elderly get used to and live with the rest of their days. She reached up with white fingers to touch the hole in her shirt, to run her fingers over the dried blood crusting the light blue fabric. Again – pain. But not the sharp agony of a wound. Her hands undid a few of the buttons, fingers clumsy, and peered down at her chest.

Brown, dried blood was smeared everywhere. But through the crusty blood, she could see a green spot where the bullet had entered her chest. Spidery veins trailed away from it, snaking across her pale chest like a web. Her fingers poked and prodded. The web was cold; her skin was warm.

"Maddie?"

Suddenly becoming aware of her surroundings, she looked up. The world was green and upside down. Doorways floated overhead and bits of rock rose into the sky like balloons. And crouched nearby, face trapped in a strange expression, was the ghost she should have been expecting. He'd been plaguing her for over a year, after all.

"How are you feeling?"

She let her shirt fall closed, bringing her hand up to run through her hair. It was strange, feeling her skin move slightly and the firmness of bones underneath. She didn't think ghosts had that kind of internal structure. She had been expecting something different, although she wasn't sure what.

"Maddie? Do you remember what happened?"

Dragging her focus back to the ghost, she blinked at him. "Why are you here?"

Phantom started down at his hands. "I… wanted to make sure you were alright," he muttered.

She stared at him, startled. The ghost was a powerful creature and – from all her records – confident and cocky. The creature crouched a half-dozen feet away looked shy and broken. It was such a complete 180 change, that she shook her head in confusion. "Why?"

"I…" The ghost broke off with a dismal shrug, looking away. "It's complicated." Then he winced.

Letting her eyes drift away from the ghost – she quietly checked herself, she'd have to stop referring to him that way now that she was dead as well – she gazed down at her fingers. She moved her fingers around, watching the interplay of muscle and bone and skin. It looked so _real_. She was already rewriting a lot of her theories about ghosts in her head.

"Do you remember what happened?" Phantom pressed. He scooted a bit closer, his green eyes wide and earnest.

"I was at the bank," she murmured, still more interested in her hands than the ghost before her. She reached over and picked up a rock, tossing it up and down a few times. "And there was a bank robber…" she trailed off, the rock falling to the ground as she remembered. "My son. Danny." Her eyes jerked up, caught on Phantom's. "My son! What happened to Danny!?"

The ghost waved his hand placating. "He's fine, I promise. You remember? You got shot?"

Her hand touched the greenish hole through her chest. "Yeah," she whispered. Her mind was still full of images of her son. What he would have to deal with, having watched his mother die. Danny was a strong boy, but she knew how sensitive he was on the inside. This would destroy him. The world started to blur with tears as she thought about it. She wanted desperately to go to him, to find a way out of this world of green and doors and find him… but she was dead. Ghosts shouldn't be in the human world. She knew that deep down in her heart.

"It went through your heart," Phantom said softly.

"I died."

The ghost hesitated. He shifted, looking flustered. "See, I pulled you into the ghost zone after you got shot. Your heart was gone. Blasted into a hundred pieces. You were dying."

She was still and quiet. Her gaze went back down to her hands. To her wedding ring. A pang of hurt went through her at the loss of her best friend, but she just stared at the wedding band. Why was it still on her hand? Hadn't she died and left it behind?

"Maddie," the ghost said, his voice starting and stopping a few times. "See... I… You… It wasn't your time to die. You weren't supposed to, in the bank."

"So?" She listened to her breath in her lungs. To the gurgle of her stomach. To the solid warmth of the gold ring. And a sickening, terrible sensation landed in her chest. Something was wrong. Something was _very_ wrong.

"I didn't want you to die." Phantom sounded like he was near tears. His hands were moving, clenching, almost like he wanted to reach out and grab her. "So I brought you here."

She looked at him. Stared into his eyes that were red-rimmed and raw. His face was a mask of pain and fear. She didn't ask any questions, she just waited, her mind lost and empty of thought.

"And I made you a heart," he whispered.

Her warm, human fingers came up to press at the cold hole in her chest. A cold spike driven through her soul. She shivered.

"You're still alive," he told her, his voice desperate for her to believe. "You have a ghost heart moving your blood around. Keeping you alive." He crept forwards another few inches. "Maddie… you're not dead."

_I'm not dead._ The thought curled through her mind like a slow and steady breeze. It chased away everything else until she was surrounded by nothing but the silence of her nonexistent heartbeat.

"Say something," came a whisper.

She couldn't find anything to say.

"_Please_."

Her eyes blinked. She watched a door drift past. "You gave me a heart," she said slowly, almost as if she didn't understand what the words meant.

"Yeah," the ghost said. He slid forwards a few more inches. It wouldn't take long before he would be sitting in her lap. There was something desperate and broken in his green eyes.

"A ghost heart."

"Ghost energy seems to make human tissue grow faster," he said after a moment. "Your own heart will grow back if you give it time."

"Time," she repeated dully.

"Yeah. You'll have to stay in the ghost zone, but it's not so bad in here." Phantom's voice was cajoling and pleading, almost like a child trying to explain why he should be allowed to have just one more cookie before supper. "You just have to wait."

She stared at her surroundings, trying her best to grasp everything. She was alive – in a way. Her heart was some creation out of ectoplasm. Her movements were restricted to the ghost world. No doubt just one step into the human world and her heart would disintegrate, not having enough energy to survive without the environment of the ghost world.

"There's places you can live. I'll bring you food, and water…"

This was wrong. Her fingers pressed at her chest, desperate for the feel of a pulse under her skin. A voice in the back of her head was screaming that this wasn't right. This wasn't_natural_. Something like this – a creature that was part alive and part dead, a human body with a ghost heart – shouldn't exist. _Couldn't_ exist.

"Maddie?"

The feeling pervaded every nerve in her body. It ran up and down her arms like spiders, crawled around her spine like caterpillars, and stung her legs like a hive of hornets. It was instinct, buried so deep that she didn't even comprehend why it was. Just _that_ it was.

She shouldn't exist. This wasn't right.

"Maddie?!" Perhaps the ghost saw something in her face, in her eyes. His voice had ratcheted up a few notches.

"This is wrong," she whispered. "You shouldn't have done this."

It wasn't that she wanted to die. Far from it. The thought of seeing her children again, her husband, sent rainbows of happiness through her mind. This was her chance to survive and she was, if nothing else, a survivor. A thin rope thrown to her through impossible happenstances and she was more than happy to grab a hold on it. She hated the thought of dying.

But she shouldn't be alive. It was wrong in so many different ways. Feelings welled up inside of her, feelings she didn't understand or agree with. Thoughts of death. A horrible and unwanted drive to finish dying, like she was supposed to.

It was the natural order of things. To be born, to live, to die. This part-ghost thing wasn't part of the order. Wasn't part of nature. It shouldn't exist. It needed to _stop_ existing – and she knew it on such an instinctive level that she hated it, but knew she couldn't fight it. This thing that she was, this not-quite-human, was dangerous. Against the laws of nature. Something that could break the universe.

She couldn't be allowed to exist.

"No, no, it's okay," Phantom whispered. He'd gotten close enough to pick up her hand, to squeeze her fingers as if to reassure himself that she was still there.

"No, it's not." How could she contemplate killing herself? Her hands shook as she pulled them free of the ghost's grasp. Why should she want to die? What terrible thing was this inside of her, pushing her towards death? Never once in her life had she thought of suicide, only now it pulsed through her every thought, driven by instincts she didn't know she had.

She didn't want to die. Yet she knew, in her soul, that she would kill herself. She had to. Such a thing as her couldn't exist in the world.

"Yeah, it is," the ghost was saying. "See, I'm part human too. And part ghost. I'm like you, kind of. And it's okay." He touched her arm, her shoulder, her leg. Butterfly touches.

She stared at him. The dark thing inside of her, reaching out with demanding claws and fangs to demand her death, stopped in its tracks. "What?" she breathed.

The ghost touched her hand again. She didn't move to pull it away. "I almost died, over a year ago. But I didn't. I'm a ghost and a human." His voice hadn't left the pleading, childish tones.

She shuddered. The thing inside of her arched backwards away from the ghost. The part-ghost. The _thing_ sitting before her, casually breaking all the laws of the universe. Unnatural. Not right. It made her chest twist and clench.

Her head started to shake. It refused to stop moving back and forth.

"It's okay," the ghost said again. He smiled at her, a strange half-smile that clashed with this red-rimmed eyes and the tear streaks on his face. "I'm going to take you somewhere safe, okay? And I'll tell you all about how I ended up like this. You'll be fine, you'll see."

She gazed at him, broken and lost, still numbly shaking her head.

"Come on." He got to his feet and reached out a hand for her to grab. To pull her to her feet.

She didn't know what else to do. The thing inside of her demanded her death. Her mind and soul wanted herself to live. And an unnatural creature was offering her a safe place to think. Slowly, she reached out her hand. Her body shivered when it touched the wrongness of the half-ghost's hand.

The ghost smiled – a real smile.

"You'll be fine," he said again as he pulled her to her feet. "I promise."

She wasn't so sure.


	2. Chapter 2

The Ghost Zone knew no such thing as temperature.

Maddie had never noticed it before, although she and Jack had undertaken several brief expeditions into the ghosts' domain. Some small part of her mind supplied the thought that they had been insulated within the speeder during those trips, and she supposed that it would have been enough to protect them from this phenomenon. Now, her body was tingling, uncertain whether to feel hot or cold – the only source of temperature was coming from the unusual teenager that carried her.

She asked Phantom about it and he shrugged. "I'm not a scientist," the creature said, before refocusing on the task of carrying the wounded woman through the void. Initially, Maddie had protested at such treatment – she was far too close to the ghost/human/thing for her liking – but Phantom had given her a look that brooked no argument and hoisted her onto his back.

A curious sensation was tugging at Maddie's chest, rooting itself deep within her. The initial physical shock of having ectoplasm grafted to her body was wearing off, and only now did she realise that it was spreading, the spectral energy seeping through her veins and slowly tainting the rest of her body.

The pain was also returning.

To take her mind off the sharp ache that throbbed with every breath, Maddie tightened her hold around Phantom's shoulders and voiced the question that this new sensation brought. "You said that you would tell me how you became a human-ghost. Was it similar to what you've done to me?"

Phantom shook his head, one hand moving to his neck in an effort to loosen the huntress' grasp. "No, nobody turned me into a halfa," he responded. "Like I said, it was an accident."

"You never said that," Maddie retorted. "All you said was that you nearly died, but you didn't."

"The particulars of my near-death aren't important," Phantom snapped, both hands now trying to ease the pressure on his throat.

Finally, she was on familiar ground. The tension radiating from Phantom was comforting in its normalcy, and Maddie realised belatedly that she should probably adjust her grip so she wasn't choking a creature that obviously needed to breathe.

The fact that he actually needed to breathe still didn't sit quite right with Maddie. His breaths were shallow and infrequent, occurring once every thirty seconds to a minute, but they were definitely required for him to function. Beneath her fingers, the woman had also felt a sluggish pulse in Phantom's neck.

She adjusted her grip, the sheer wrongness of the entire situation making Maddie shudder.

"Are you okay?" Phantom queried, obviously feeling the involuntary movement.

Maddie shook her head numbly, wondering at the unveiled concern in his voice. He almost seemed to care, as though his relationship with the woman went deeper than her pointing an ectogun and him making some lame joke about it. The throb of pain in her torso was becoming overwhelming as her nerves finally registered that something was unnaturally _wrong,_ and Maddie struggled to keep herself from sobbing. This was wrong. Phantom shouldn't exist, and neither should she.

A new thought sent terror washing through her.

"Are there more human-ghosts?" the huntress rasped.

"Yeah," Phantom responded instantly, the question catching him off-guard, "and we call ourselves halfas. It's easier to say than human-ghost."

There were more.

Maddie felt like screaming. Phantom's unusual power levels, his uncharacteristic emotional displays, that obviously living physiology – they made him unpredictable. Unpredictability was dangerous, especially in an enemy.

Phantom seemed to sense her distress. "There are only two others," he clarified. "One of us is a bit of a loner, and she hangs out in the Ghost Zone a lot because her form's unstable. The other one isn't that much of an issue to humanity because all he cares about is grinding me into the dust and attacking my family, but I can handle him. Don't worry, you're not suddenly gunna have to deal with an invasion of halfas or anything like that."

Relief flooded through her, and Maddie let out a whispered "thank goodness."

If he heard the comment, Phantom didn't respond.

They paused in front of a purple door not unlike the hundreds of others that littered the place. On the front, a sloppy replica of Phantom's symbol had been painted in ectoplasm, the substance branding the wood beneath it.

"What's this?" Maddie breathed, trying to keep her mind off the searing pain and seeping cold on her front.

"A safe place," Phantom responded, opening the door and floating into what appeared to be a living room. "It's an abandoned lair. I cleaned it out about a year ago and adopted it in case I ever needed a safe house."

He floated down the hallway, entering a sparse bedroom with whitewashed walls and starched blankets. Maddie was laid on the bed gently, but the tug beneath her ribs forced an involuntary cry through her lips.

"Sorry!" Phantom exclaimed, hands fluttering across her shoulders and arms. Butterfly touches again, as though he wanted to scoop her into an embrace and never let go.

For the first time, Maddie noticed that the halfa was streaked with blood.

His boots and gloves were barely recognisable for the white that they had once been, and dark splotches on the black suit glistened wetly. Phantom saw her looking, and sighed as he produced a first aid kit from the dresser. "All of it's yours," he confirmed. "Danny wasn't hurt."

Frowning at the ceiling, Maddie wondered how this kid knew what she was fretting over. It almost seemed like he had some sort of unfair advantage, as though he knew her but she didn't know him. This thought unsettled the woman further, and she wrestled with the concept that she was such a fundamental part of Phantom's life.

Gentle fingers tugged apart her shirt, lightly pressing a pad of gauze over the glowing green that plugged her bullet hole. "Hold this here," he ordered, guiding Maddie's fingers up to press against the pad. "Your body's trying to reject the ectoplasm, but that should settle soon enough. That gauze should hold it in until it sets properly."

"Is that why it hurts so much?" the question was out before she could stop it. For a moment, Maddie berated herself for showing such weakness – such _longing_ for life – in front of her foe. She met Phantom's gaze, and the glow in his eyes had dimmed.

He was… crying?

Another tear slipped from his lashes and down a pale cheek, leaving behind a trail that glowed faintly. Maddie could only watch in silence, her capacity for strange things completely used up by this point. On top of everything else, Phantom's tears over her predicament were enough to shut down the woman's mental capabilities completely. No theories sprang to mind, and no words magically rolled off her tongue.

The scientist in her was overloaded, and plain old Maddie Fenton was all that remained.

"I'm sorry," the teen whispered, sitting on the mattress beside her and removing his gloves to lace cool fingers within her own. Maddie didn't move away, watching in fascination as he continued to cry. Yes, his eyes had been red-rimmed and his face tear-streaked when she had woken, but the cause for those tears could still be debated. That the halfa was crying here, while she was awake and in pain, gave one concept a jarring amount of evidence.

For whatever reason, Phantom cared what happened to her.

Eager to learn more about the creature that she had been saved by – after all, Phantom _had_ saved her, regardless of what his motive was – Maddie watched as the tears streamed down his cheeks, and sobs began to shake the wiry frame. He made no move to wipe away the tears, and they fell from his chin and nose and lashes to drip onto the sheets, leaving behind little glowing spots.

Another horrible thought, this one even worse than the last, made itself known.

"Am I going to be a halfa forever?"

Phantom's expression was one of absolute misery. "I don't know," he sobbed, fingers tightening around her own. "I honestly don't know."


	3. Chapter 3

Maddie woke to the smell of pizza.

Without opening her eyes she yawned luxuriously, wondering at the scent. If there was pizza, it meant that somebody's day had been exceptionally bad. The tradition reached back to college, when any time that their experiments failed miserably or more funds were cut, the only way to cheer the two boys up had been with pizza. One Maddie and Jack were raising a family, the tradition had been added upon with brown creaming soda (Jazz's contribution) and ice-cream cake (this one had been Danny's idea).

Wondering whose life had been met with catastrophe, Maddie opened her eyes and sat up. In an unfamiliar bed. In a plain, white room. With a freezing chunk sending bolts of pain through her chest.

Crying out, the woman lurched forwards, pressing hands against the space where her heart should be. As the pain dulled back to an aching throb, she waited for the familiar beat of an organ that was no longer there.

Phantom poked his head through the open door, brow creased in that inexplicable worry. "Are you okay?" Her withering glare had the halfa looking at his toes. "Sor-_ry_, it's a standard question," he muttered.

That tone pressed against Maddie's mind like a leaden weight. Everything about this kid screamed harmless-if-slightly-obnoxious teenager, and the more the woman stared, the less she could see in terms of a dangerous creature from beyond the grave. If the kid ditched the hazmat and somehow managed to stop glowing, he'd fit right in at the local high school.

Phantom sighed when Maddie didn't speak. "Look, while you were asleep, I went and got some dinner. Do you think you can walk?"

Her body screamed no, but her mind quailed at the thought of showing even the slightest weakness against this particular person. "I can handle it," Maddie insisted, swinging her feet over the edge of the bed and trying to hold back a grimace.

The ghost was by her side in a flash of light, and Maddie jerked away from him at the unexpected teleportation. "I said I can handle it," she said in her best 'listen to me because I'm the mum' voice. True to her hypothesis, the teen pulled back slightly. His hands fluttered though the air as though unsure before their movements settled, folding casually across his chest.

"The dining room's just across the hall," he supplied as she took her first step.

The pain ripped through Maddie's chest in a jolt, but she refrained from letting her discomfort show. Instead, she concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. Maddie was dimly aware that the spectral teen was following right behind her, but to her relief he didn't make contact.

Upon entering the room across the hall, the woman collapsed into the nearest chair, breathing in shallow gasps. She could have sworn that Phantom muttered something about her usual stubbornness, but through the haze of pain Maddie couldn't be entirely certain.

The huntress waited until her breathing slowed back to normal, fully aware of the boy nervously standing beside her. Once her breaths were completely under control and the throbbing diminished, Maddie opened her eyes, looked at the table, and froze.

Pizza, brown creaming soda, and an ice cream cake.

"Won't it melt?" Maddie blurted, her mouth spewing the first thought to cross her stunned mind.

Phantom lifted his hand in response and wriggled gloved fingers, grinning mischievously as ice crystals formed in the air around his fingernails. "I wouldn't worry about that," he responded.

Somehow, this kid knew the inner workings of the Fenton family. Maddie dimly registered that his suit was no longer covered in her blood as she struggled to comprehend how this impossible creature knew such an important family tradition of hers.

"Are you one of Danny's school friends?" she breathed.

Phantom stiffened. "Um, I-I know Danny, if that's what you're asking." He seemed to not know where to put his hands – rubbing the back of his neck, folding and unfolding lanky arms, running gloved fingers through a mess of white hair – and his eyes looked everywhere except the huntress' face. "Why d'you ask?"

Maddie gestured to the food. "You know our bad day tradition."

"Oh, that." The kid let out a laugh that was a little more boisterous than necessary. "Yeah, Danny told everyone in the class about that when we were sharing family values and talking about different cultures and things we hold on to and stuff like that. I went to get food when you fell asleep, and remembered that he'd said you guys have this stuff when you have a bad day, so I thought you'd like to have it now because becoming a halfa was certainly one of the worst days _I've_ ever had."

He was babbling. Maybe Maddie could use that to her advantage. "So, you're in my son's class?" she asked, trying to keep her tone nonchalant.

He finally met her gaze. "Maybe."

"Stop trying to be mysterious," Maddie told him, "you just make yourself look stupid."

"But a virtually unique creature such as myself _should_ be mysterious," Phantom countered, puffing out his chest somewhat childishly.

How did she even end up having this conversation?

Turning her focus to the table, Maddie smirked. "I think you got a tad much," she commented, gesturing to the four large pizza boxes.

"Well, I usually eat three," he muttered, sitting in the chair next to her. Maddie tensed at the proximity, but if Phantom noticed, he made no comment.

"How can you eat that much? There's not enough space in your stomach!"

Phantom flushed, his cheeks turning light green. "Um, most of it gets turned straight into spectral energy and stored as ectoplasm. Only the last couple of slices actually feed my human body."

"So you _do_ have a human form."

"I thought that we'd already established that," the teen grumbled, reaching for a slice of pizza and foregoing his plate entirely.

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"What's your human form?"

Phantom choked on his mouthful, hunching over the table and coughing violently. After a few seconds Maddie started to thump him on the back, and it took a couple more breaths before his fit subsided. "Please," Phantom rasped, "don't ask me that."

Maddie was instantly furious. How dare he? This creature had dragged her into the Ghost Zone and to his lair. He expected her to trust him enough to stay there while ectoplasm slowly tainted her entire body, and to blindly eat and drink whatever was offered. For all they knew, this new heart could be turning Maddie into a hybrid! How dare he even _think_ that he had a right to keep such information to himself?!

"Phantom," the woman ground out, struggling to keep her voice level, "please be reasonable here. I'm trying to trust you, but you have to give me something to go on."

The halfa went very still, his fingers curling tightly around the edge of the table. "I saved your life," he responded in a whisper. "I brought you to my only safe haven, even though all you've ever done is hunt me. Isn't that enough?"

Something within Maddie told her to stop, that the boy was right, but she couldn't keep her mouth shut. "All you've ever done is terrorise the town!"

"I fight off the real threat!" He was on the verge of shouting now. "I keep everyone in Amity Park as safe as I can!"

"Why?! Why do you care? For all we know, you're just having fun with your ghostly buddies!"

He stood so forcefully that the chair clattered to the floor. "I give a damn because it's _my _fault that the portal started working in the first place!"

As Phantom's words registered in Maddie's stunned brain, a look of horror crossed his face. He took a step back, eyes darting to the door as if he was debating whether he could make it before someone shot him.

"Wait-"

He was gone as soon as she opened her mouth.

Maddie leaned back in her chair, fingers pressed against her lips. Her eyes began to burn, and the huntress felt like she was going to scream.

Phantom fought the ghosts because he thought that it was his fault.

Guilt slammed into her like a bulldozer, and the first tear spilled down the woman's cheek. Phantom was just a kid, but he obviously dedicated his life to doing what he thought was right. He had a human form, and since Maddie had seen him fighting at all hours of the day, his human life would surely suffer from the constant call of duty.

The kid dedicated himself to protecting the citizens of Amity Park from something that he felt responsible for. Technically, he was doing Maddie's job. Visions flashed through her mind of the suddenly frail-looking body being thrown against buildings, shot, burned… More tears followed, and Maddie sobbed into her hands as she finally realised that all the kid had ever done was try to keep her safe, and she had hunted him relentlessly for it.

As Maddie continued to cry, melted ice cream dripped of the edge of the table, pooling in a sticky mess on the floor.


	4. Chapter 4

A crash sounded down the hallway. It was followed by a shriek, and then a thump.

Raising her eyes from her book, Maddie frowned in the direction of the door. She hadn't seen Phantom since the disastrous dinner, and everything had been quiet up until now.

After regaining her composure, the woman had forced herself to eat several slices of pizza. Despite having no appetite, Maddie wanted to heal as quickly as possible, and if what Phantom said about ectoplasm was true, than it absorbed a lot of energy at a rapid rate. She needed to keep herself well-fed and well-rested.

She had collected the remaining pizzas and placed them in a fridge in the adjoining kitchen, reasoning that the teenager would need to eat soon. On her way back to her bedroom, Maddie snagged a book from one of the hallway bookshelves. She had been expecting some ancient text detailing the secrets of spectral entities or the mysteries of halfas, but upon observation back in her room the cover told a different story. It was just a copy of _Lord of the Flies_, complete with notes scribbled in the margins and passages highlighted for schoolwork, but thus far the story had provided sufficient distraction from the freezing spike that drove itself deeper into her body with every hour.

The book also provided something to focus on that wasn't Phantom.

Shutting the novel, Maddie sighed, wincing at the pain that shot through her ribs. That shriek had definitely been his, and after her treatment of the teen, the least that the woman could do was make sure that he was alright.

The huntress slowly levered herself out of bed and staggered towards the continued gasps and occasional muffled cry. These noises sounded from the room next to hers, and Maddie gently turned the doorknob and eased it open a crack in order to take a peek at what was going on without alerting the room's occupant.

Phantom was sitting on the bathroom floor, a hand clamped tightly over his mouth in an attempt to silence his latest sob. Tears were sliding down his cheeks as the halfa rummaged through a pile of items that had obviously fallen out of a first aid kit when it had been knocked over or dropped.

Near the middle of his chest, there was a wound rather similar to Maddie's. However, it was as though this job had been rushed – the wound was larger, its shape irregular as opposed to her almost perfect circle. The edges were jagged, as if the implement used to cut had been held by a person that was shaking badly. In addition, where Maddie's wound was covered for the most part by a membrane that wasn't quite as thick or durable as skin, Phantom's wound was not – it wept ectoplasm freely, the viscous substance dripping down Phantom's chest.

It looked fresh at first glance, as though whatever procedure that caused such a mark had been carried out there on the bathroom floor. However, closer inspection revealed inflammation, the skin flushed dark green around the site of injury.

This wound was most likely as old as Maddie's.

Phantom produced a tube from the scattered supplies, uncapping it and gingerly spreading its glowing white contents across his mangled chest. This was accompanied by more cries of pain, and Maddie noted a pile of linen bandages hanging over the side of the bath – they were stained with splotches of green.

He seemed to know what he was doing.

Once again, Maddie's thoughts flashed back to countless fights. Most of the time, Phantom had been attacked from all sides – sure, the ghosts he fought caused quite a bit of damage, but the hunters would be just as bad. Her stomach twisted at the thought, and Maddie clenched her hand tightly around the doorknob as her mind unhelpfully supplied the damage rating for all of their different blasters. Even being _nicked_ by one of those shots would hurt like hell.

The ointment administered, Phantom grabbed a roll of bandages from his supplies. Anchoring one end against his side with a piece of medical tape, the teenager began to wind the fresh bandage around his torso, sobbing as he twisted to pass the roll across his back.

Maddie had seen enough.

She shoved the door open, standing with hands on hips and a stern expression as Phantom jumped in surprise.

"Mu-Maddie, what-?"

"Let me help," the woman sighed, kneeling beside the hero with a wince at the tug in her own chest. "What on earth caused such a horrible injury?"

A part of her screamed that she didn't want to know, but Maddie pushed this thought away as she tugged the roll from Phantom's fingers. "Arms up," she ordered, and continued to wrap his chest when the boy obeyed. "Now, why do you need bandages when I don't?"

Phantom hissed as she pulled the fabric snugly over his weeping wound. "I put all my energy into you, keeping only enough the keep me alive."

The woman flinched. Phantom must have been shot when trying to rescue her, and had to heal himself as well…

Oh, hell.

"You were already at the bank," Maddie said. "Otherwise, you wouldn't have been able to get there in time to save me."

"Why would I have been-?"

"In your human form," she clarified. "You were in your human form to do normal, human things when the robbery occurred. Now hand me the needle and thread I see over there, and I'll stitch this bandage closed.

Phantom hung his head and did as she asked. "Yeah," he whispered, "I was there."

He had saved her despite being shot in the chest himself.

"Thank you for rescuing me," Maddie murmured. "It must have been really hard to make a fully-functional heart out of ectoplasm, especially when you're trying to keep yourself alive as well. In fact, wouldn't the stuff in my chest still be using your strength to function right now?"

Phantom shook his head. "I don't know how to make an entire heart," he confessed in a voice even quieter than hers.

"But mine was destroyed, you said so yourself!" the huntress blurted, her fingers tightening around his shoulder. "Explain, then, what…"

Was his wound really caused by a bullet?

Phantom sent the woman a shaky smile as her eyes flicked to his bandaged chest. "I can't make a body part on its own, but if it has enough to latch on to, I can make the rest as sort of a blueprint for the cells to grow around. It'll function well enough as ectoplasm, and degrade as your body replaces it with cells. The great thing is that the cells it attaches to provide enough energy for it to remain functional, so your body's energy is enough now and I don't have to help support it anymore."

No… There was no way he would have, or even _could_ have…

He held up his ungloved hand. "See, you'll notice that about half of this isn't tanned. That's because a friend of mine lost her hand recently in a ghost fight, so I gave her half of mine and then built each of us another half hand out of ectoplasm. The thing is, she's already a halfa, so that's why I don't know how the ectoplasm will affect you. However, there's no rejection of the new human tissue because the ectoplasm sort of cancels that out, which is useful."

"Phantom," Maddie breathed, "what the hell are you saying?"

His small smile faltered as she gripped both shoulders and turned the boy to face her. "Maddie-"

"What the _hell_ did you do?!"

Phantom flinched at her outburst, trying to pull away despite the fingers wrapped around his shoulders like a vice.

One look at her face seemed to convince him.

"I guess I owe it to you to be honest," the teen sighed. He reached up to clasp the huntress' wrists, meeting her eyes fully for the first time since their altercation in the dining room.

"I cut out half of my own human heart and gave it to you."


	5. Chapter 5

Phantom squirmed as Maddie stared at him. "Please say something," the boy whispered.

It was impossible.

"Are you telling me that you sat there and cut out half of your own heart?"

He nodded, and Maddie felt like she had been punched in the gut.

This kid had gouged out half of his own heart to save her, and all Maddie had done since she woke up was treat him badly. She had half a mind to apologise then and there, and would have done so, but the scientist within the woman forced out a different set of words.

"Then why haven't you been in pain?"

Phantom grimaced. "Well, you were unconscious after the transplant for a long time. I had plenty of time to absorb the Ghost Zone's ambient ectoenergy, and to call in a favour or two that the ghosts in the surrounding region owe me. They got off pretty lightly, since all I needed was a bit of a hand from the healer and some actual ectoplasm to eat from the hunter," the teen rambled.

"Still, the pain-"

"A really strong painkiller from the healer," he interrupted. "It stopped my nerves from sending pain signals or something like that."

Maddie stared at this impossible, amazing creature.

For some reason, he cared about her enough to donate half of his heart…

An image flashed across her thoughts of a faceless human boy sitting next to her prone form and ripping open his chest, hunched over and screaming with every breath. His blood – his dark red, _human_ blood – streamed over his hands and clothes and stained the rock beneath him.

She blinked, and his featureless face morphed into one that was startling in its familiarity.

Furrowing her brow, the huntress pushed away the thought. Phantom wasn't Danny – he just _couldn't_ be. Her mind, in its shock, was simply superimposing Danny's familiar and beloved features over the teen in front of her. Something inside her shifted into place, and all Maddie wanted to do was give the kid in front of her a hug, tuck him into bed, and promise that everything would be alright.

She may be a scientist, but Madeline Fenton would always first and foremost be a mother.

Following her sudden maternal instincts, Maddie swept the halfa into her arms. If she stopped to think now, the woman feared that she might faint or cry or do something equally unhelpful. Phantom stiffened at the contact before gingerly returning the embrace, and Maddie rubbed his back gently. "Do your parents know that you're here?"

Phantom pulled away, shaking his head. "Nah, but they won't be worried. Whenever I go off to fight ghosts they don't even notice." He winced as soon as the words left his mouth. "N-not that they're bad parents or anything, but I've gotten really good at sneaking out."

"I guess ghost powers would help," Maddie sighed. She didn't want to upset the boy, but whoever he was, he was just a kid no older than her son. The thought of Danny sneaking out to fight malevolent spectres in the quiet morning hours sent a bolt of fear through the woman. If Phantom's parents weren't there to take care of him when he needed it… If they somehow weren't aware… "Do your parents know that you're Phantom?"

"Are you kidding? They don't even know that I'm a halfa," the teen snorted.

Madeline Fenton resolved then and there that she would take care of this kid.

"Phantom, listen to me-"

"I'll tell them when I'm ready," he snapped.

"Let me finish! My portal turned you into a halfa, didn't it? I'm partially responsible, so I'm going to help you whenever you need it."

Phantom stilled, locking his gaze with the huntress'. Maddie met it unflinchingly, trying with all her might to communicate through that simple look how _responsible_ she felt. The cold spikes twisting through her body throbbed, and Maddie found herself welcoming the pain. She was glad that ectoplasm was rooting itself within her, because Maddie knew that she deserved far worse.

It was her fault that this boy was half ghost.

No wonder Danny had pulled away from her in the past eighteen months – her own invention had imbued one of his classmates with supernatural powers, and he would have been there to witness it.

Phantom's life was ruined, Danny's trust was gone, and it was all Maddie's fault.

She deserved everything that was thrown her way.

Phantom nodded slightly, obviously convinced by something that he saw. "Well if you're gunna help me, there're painkillers in syringes on the top shelf of the fridge," he managed weakly. "Don't give yourself any, though – they only work on ghosts or halfas, and I'm not sure if you count as one yet."

She leaned him against the side of the tub and lurched in the direction of the kitchen.

As she walked, Maddie thought. Pain lanced through her limbs and her chest was numb from the cold that throbbed within, but for this she was glad. No punishment was too harsh for her right now; Maddie had left the lab open on the day the portal started working, and all Danny would admit to was going down there and managing to turn the thing on by fiddling with buttons.

Teenagers sneaking into a restricted lab.

How did Maddie not see that coming?

The huntress sighed as she opened the fridge, grabbing a syringe from the designated shelf and turning back towards the bathroom.

Phantom lifted his head when she returned, immediately holding out his forearm. "The problem with this stuff is that you don't realise that it's wearing off until the pain hits you all at once," he continued as though she had never left.

Maddie injected the teen and he relaxed almost instantly, a smile creeping across his face. "Thanks," Phantom sighed, rubbing the spot where the needle had punctured his skin.

"How long should it take you to heal?" Maddie asked, beginning to gather the supplies that were scattered across the floor. The pain was a welcome distraction – if she focused hard enough on the tiny needles of ice driving their way through her arms and legs, then maybe she could forget what she had inadvertently done to the boy sitting on the bathroom floor.

"If I don't do anything stupid, it should only take about a fortnight with my ghost healing," he responded, snapping shut the lid of the first aid box and standing to place it back on the cabinet shelf.

The woman sighed, leaning against the doorframe. "Did you eat anything?"

He shook his head. "No, I'll go get something from the kitchen and then go to bed. You should think about sleeping as well – you'll heal a lot faster. How're you feeling, anyway?"

Cold. Cold and suddenly scared.

The creeping pain had stopped without her realising, and now her entire body was frozen instead of just her chest.

Maddie wanted to scream and claw this bolt of ectoplasm from her core, but something told her that it was too late now.

"The pain's decreased a bit," she confessed, choosing her words carefully so as not to alarm the weary teen. Whatever was happening to her, it was far too late to stop it now, and Phantom was in no condition to perform any healing acts on her anyway. "I'm not invisible or phasing through things, so don't worry."

The halfa shrugged. "It's my job to worry," he told her firmly. "Now, let's get you to bed.

Maddie allowed herself to be led back to her room, and Phantom gestured to the wardrobe. "Um, there's a suitcase in there that I filled with a bunch of your clothes and stuff when I was getting the pizza, so you can get in pyjamas if you want. You might be a bit more comfortable." His cheeks were flushed green, and Maddie resisted the urge to laugh as the flustered teen bade her a quick "Sleep well" and fled the room.

He really was a sweet kid, and Maddie's resolve to take care of him grew with every new thing he said or did. Providing a safe place for Phantom whenever he needed it was the least she could do, after all.

Opening the wardrobe, Maddie rummaged through the duffel bag Phantom had obviously been talking about and removed a set of pyjamas. She straightened up, flinching at the gentle pulse of ice that shot down her arm.

The fabric fell through her transparent hand, and Maddie stared in horror as it pooled onto the floor.

**Okay, some housekeeping.**

**I have been receiving some anonymous reviews on several of my stories for a while now that are not signed 'guest'. However, the space for a name is blank. The thing is, this website deletes things that resemble urls. To the reviewer in question, I would love to respond to your reviews if you are signing them with your fanfiction username, especially since you've been asking me a few questions. Please, put spaces between the punctuation (e.g. a full stop) and the word after it so that this site doesn't delete your name!**

**I would also like to take this opportunity to thank you all for reading this story, and for your many kind reviews!**


	6. Chapter 6

Despite the hunger that sent pangs clawing through her abdomen, Maddie couldn't bring herself to eat. Phantom watched over the top of his glass of ectoplasm, intense green eyes silently begging her to swallow just a couple of mouthfuls.

The toast and coffee sat in front of her, normal in every sense of the word.

Plain, human food that Maddie's churning core would not allow her to swallow.

She hadn't slept. Maddie had foregone the pyjamas entirely and curled up in bed with her book, but she hadn't been able to focus on the familiar story. Instead, Maddie spent the night trying not to phase through the bed.

That foreign darkness coiled at the outskirts of her mind, demanding the woman's attention and screaming for her life – she wasn't normal, this wasn't right, she should no longer exist. Every time it reared its head, she made a concerted effort to concentrate on the teenager's own plight, and the darkness recoiled again. After all, Maddie couldn't very well remove herself from existence when Phantom still needed her.

She tried lifting the mug, but it slipped through Maddie's transparent grasp, spilling the hot beverage across the table.

Phantom flinched as though he had been struck, green eyes refusing to meet the huntress'. He took another sip of the glowing liquid, and Maddie watched in fascination as it clung to the edges of his glass with a viscosity similar to that of honey. The smell of toast and coffee was strong in her nostrils, but the ectoplasm's underlying scent threw the woman's mind into overdrive.

The thought of pouring that liquid down her throat was almost too much to bear. Maddie swallowed dryly, feeling a phantom coating of sticky sweetness on her tongue and lips, a craving for something that she had never experienced before. It scared her.

The table seemed to give way beneath her arm gradually, and Maddie jolted as her flesh turned tangible again, stuck half in and half out of the lacquered wood.

Pain hit her all at once, and the woman gave an involuntary scream, trying to tug her limb free. Her efforts were useless – molecules had settled in a way that tangled and intertwined them, effectively making the huntress' arm a part of the table.

Phantom was on his feet in a flash, standing beside Maddie and rubbing her back. Small, gentle words slipped from his lips in a whisper, coaxing the woman to relax her arm and pleading with her to forget that the table was there, "because if it doesn't exist, then there's nothing to stop you from going through it, is there?".

Her mind baulked at this new and frightening way of thinking, but after a couple of minutes filled with pain from her arm and whispers from her shoulder, Maddie managed to view the table as insubstantial long enough for her arm to turn intangible and pull free of the wood.

Phantom continued to rub her back as the woman trembled and cried.

"The first time I got stuck, it was halfway through the floor," he confessed in that same quiet voice. "My hips and legs were sticking out of the kitchen ceiling of my house, and the rest of me was either stuck in wood, carpet and plaster, or sticking out the top of my bedroom floor. I was home alone and nobody was around to help me, so I screamed my head off for a good hour or so before I accidentally turned intangible again and fell the rest of the way through."

In different circumstances, that story would have made her laugh. Now, with the pain fresh in her mind and a nagging dread screaming that there was no ignoring what was happening to her any longer, laughter was the furthest thing from Maddie's thoughts.

"I'm a halfa now, aren't I?" she whispered.

"I honestly don't know," he responded, hands never ceasing in their movements as the teen rubbed at the knots in her shoulder blades. "We can't say for certain until you transform. Until then, I can't give you any ectoplasm either. But the fact that you can't eat human food doesn't look good."

"I thought you could eat human food?" Maddie rasped.

"Not for the first week or so of having ghost powers," Phantom responded. His tone was pleading, as though trying to convince her through something unspoken that everything was going to be okay so long as she stayed calm and trusted him. "It happened to me as well. Your forming core sort of rejects anything you ingest that isn't ghostly."

This new knowledge wasn't unexpected, and as she digested its implications, Maddie's mind drifted back to her own home and how often their food ended up becoming some sort of evil ectoplasmic creation. "Have you let your parents know where you are?" she asked on a whim. "It wouldn't do to make them worried."

Phantom nodded. "Yeah, I dropped by the house and let my Dad know that I was staying at a friend's house when I went to get the pizzas. He always has a lot going on, so he won't start worrying about me for another few days."

Maddie shifted in her seat, gasping at the bursts of freezing energy that tingled along her limbs sporadically. The foreign power made her fidget, and all the woman wanted to do was get up and _run_ until she could no longer move. She was uncomfortable, feeling itchy and suffocated as sparks of spectral energy flowed through her veins along with her blood. It felt like tiny insects crawling beneath her skin, and the huntress couldn't stop the whimper that rose within her chest.

Fingering her wedding ring, Maddie felt fresh tears burn beneath her eyelids. Everything was just so strange, and she honestly didn't know what to do. The woman wasn't used to puzzling over difficult problems alone. Although Jack bumbled along most of the time, concerning himself with failed capture attempts and plates of fudge, he was a good scientist, and the one person in existence that she trusted without question. His fresh perspective was often the thing that Maddie utilised to work out a difficult problem or to test a particularly ludicrous hypothesis, and without him, she felt lost.

Taking a deep breath, Maddie turned to face Phantom. "Could you do something for me?" she whispered.

He looked so _guilty_. "Yeah," the teen sighed. "I'll do anything you ask."

Anything?

The question that she hadn't meant to ask was out before she could stop it. "Who are you?"

His fingers continued to knead her shoulders. "Give me a day or so to prepare," Phantom responded in a dead voice. "I… Just let me do it on my own terms."

Her mind went blank. He was really going to tell her?!

Maddie shook her head slightly. "I-I mean, when you're ready. I won't shoot you or force you to tell your parents or anything. You can trust me."

His mouth quirked at the corners, but Maddie had no idea what could possibly be funny in this situation. "Yeah, thanks. Now is there anything else?"

"How do you know that I wanted to ask something else?" Damn this enquiring mind! Why couldn't Maddie just accept things without having to know all the tiny details?

"I can taste your emotions," Phantom revealed. "It's not reading thoughts or anything, but emotions are a type of energy that ghosts can eat, so…" he raised one shoulder and lowered the other in a half-hearted shrug.

This new information wasn't as exciting as it should have been. Maybe because since he had mentioned it, Maddie could suddenly _taste_ the cloying guilt that radiated off the halfa standing behind her chair. No wonder Phantom had always seemed to know how to react to her – he knew exactly what she was feeling at any given moment.

So _that_ was how ghosts knew exactly how to scare their targets… There was research potential there, but Maddie was suddenly exhausted. Exhausted and lost.

Fiddling with the simple gold band, Maddie spun her wedding ring around her finger.

She needed Jack.

"Could you please bring my husband here?"

Phantom stiffened. "He'll try to kill me," the boy argued. "When I went to get the pizza last night, I managed to catch the news – thanks to the bank's security cameras, everyone's blaming me for kidnapping you, which I guess I kind of did, but Jack's running around town armed to the teeth and screaming that he's going to destroy me. I've never seen him this angry."

She should have expected that. Sighing, Maddie pulled off her diamond engagement ring. "Let me write a note to him," she said. "Give it to him with this ring, and Jack will know that I'm not dead, and it's not a trick. It's something we set up years ago."

Phantom tilted his head. "Well, any old ghost could send your ring to him and force you to write a note."

"We decided on a code as well," Maddie explained. "If I don't write some specific words in the letter, then it's not safe and a rescue mission is most likely in order."

The teen sighed, finally dropping his hands from her shoulders. "I'll go get you a pen and paper," he announced, "so long as you think you can hold the pen."

Maddie sent him a small smile, somewhat bewildered that he had agreed so readily but forcing herself not to question it. "I think I'll be able to manage," she shot back. "After all, it looks like I've got a pretty good coach."

Phantom responded with a smile of his own before slipping out of the room.


	7. Chapter 7

Phantom kicked open the front door and dropped a rather green-faced Jack on the carpet. "You are _so_ lucky that we're only a few minutes from the Fenton Portal," the teen grumbled as he leaned against the wall. He rubbed against his chest with a grimace, using the other hand to dab at a split lip.

Maddie got to her feet stiffly, leaving her book on the couch and lurching towards the two boys. "Phantom, are you hurt badly?" she demanded, observing the black eye and swollen jaw with a frown. Dark green bruises were already spreading beneath skin as pale as moonlight, mottling patches of the teen's face where he had been hit the hardest.

"Yeah, yeah, don't worry," the halfa insisted, ducking away from her before she could touch him. "He only punched me a couple of times before I managed to hand him the ring and note, and he didn't use ectoguns or anything. You and Jack talk – I'm gunna go get some ectoplasm and lie down for a bit."

He limped off, obviously hurt more than he was letting on, and Maddie felt the increasingly familiar guilt sour her thoughts. She had sent him into a potentially dangerous situation, without even considering what might go wrong. The teen had obviously had reservations about going, but she had pushed, and he had paid for it.

Once again, this strange young halfa was hurt because of her.

Strong arms snaked around the woman's waist, lifting Maddie off the floor and holding her tightly. "Mads," Jack sobbed, burying his face in her hair. "I thought you were… I-I…"

"Shhh," the huntress soothed. She returned the hug, rubbing circles into her wonderful husband's spine. "It's alright, I'm here, it's going to be okay…"

Maddie's fears began to melt away. Jack was here now, and so long as she had him on her side, she could conquer the world. This whole halfa business, with its strange secrets and unpredictable powers, could be worked through. She'd be okay. And once Maddie was alright, they could work together to figure out a way to help Phantom.

In between sobs, Jack plastered her face with kisses.

After what Maddie deemed an appropriate amount of time, she extricated herself from Jack's arms. "You're squashing me," she announced in a deliberately light-hearted voice. A door slammed, and the woman winced. "You hurt him, didn't you?"

Jack stared at her. "Of course I did! The spook just appeared next to me in the kitchen and started babbling about a note or something. If there's one thing I know not to trust more than anything else, it's a ghost acting different from normal!"

"Well, Phantom's _not_ normal," Maddie murmured absently as she glanced down the hallway. The door to Phantom's room was shut, and some textbooks had fallen across the floorboards from where they had been stacked neatly next to the doorframe.

"I guess I _did_ hit him a little hard," the man sighed. "A couple of punches and a kick to the shin and he was on the floor, almost out for the count. That's when I realised that he had your ring. The note said you needed to explain something before you came home?"

Maddie sighed, refocusing her attention on her best friend. Everything that she had planned on saying was suddenly gone, and the woman watched in fascination as Jack carefully slid the ring back onto her finger. His hair and clothing were unkempt, face lined with worry and exhaustion.

She decided to start with something simple. "Let's sit down." That was good – nice and normal, with nothing to indicate that she was ready to scream or cry or possibly even bolt out of the room in order to avoid the changes that this conversation would irrevocably catalyse.

Jack's fingers slipped into the gaps between hers, and Maddie squeezed his hand as they sat on the couch. It was a nice couch, made of soft leather and dark grey in colour. It was almost as soft as the bed that Maddie had been sleeping in, and she found herself trailing the fingers of her free hand lazily over the cool surface.

"You're freezing," Jack commented, clasping his other hand over their intertwined ones in an attempt to warm her unnaturally cold digits. Maddie tensed. She couldn't acknowledge that, because then one thing would lead to another, and she'd blurt out the whole story without any coherence. A small part of her mind screamed for her to _get a grip,_ and Maddie took a deep breath.

She had to start from the beginning, or everything would become a jumbled mess. Pulling her hand free, the woman undid the buttons on the front of her pyjama top. Jack's smile faltered at the unexpected movement, his confusion giving way to an entirely different expression as the fabric fell away.

The bolt of green, the veins of ectoplasm, the inflammation – all of it had faded significantly, but this was somehow even more gruesome than the wound's original appearance. Before, she could fool herself into thinking that there was still time, that the icy cold _thing_ that had saved her life could be pulled out or dissipated once she had healed sufficiently.

Now the green was an integral part of her flesh, and one glance for someone as familiar with ectoplasm as Jack Fenton was more than enough to know this.

"Mads," he breathed, face slack with horror, "what _happened?_"

She took a shuddering breath, and told him.

Jack didn't interrupt her narrative, simply sitting there and growing paler with every new piece of information. Everything she spoke about, from thieves shooting her through the heart, to halfas being real, to ectoplasm tainting her body, to Phantom being their mistake in the first place, exacted a visible toll on the man. It took a surprisingly short few minutes for her to explain exactly what was going on, and by the time Maddie had finished, her poor husband was grey-faced and trembling as though he had seen… well, something horrific that he didn't study and hunt on a daily basis.

She stopped talking, and he didn't start. Maddie knew the man well enough to know that this quiet moment would be necessary – the little inconsistencies throughout their dealings with Phantom, all of the things that had often kept the Fentons awake for several nights in a row while research continued to hit dead ends, were explained in one brutal hit. To top it all off, everything he had been comfortable with at home was suddenly thrown into question with the revelation that his own wife had been turned into one of these hybrids. When presented with information of this magnitude, Jack Fenton was the kind of man that had to stop and think for a minute in order for it all to make sense.

They sat in silence for a long time, fingers intertwined and breaths in perfect synchronisation.

Once his trembling had died down somewhat, Jack swallowed thickly. "Can you show me?" he breathed into the tense atmosphere.

How badly Maddie wished that she could refuse. So long as she didn't actually exhibit spectral abilities, her halfa status was still just theory. As soon as she showed him, there was no more denying it, no more pretending that things weren't set in stone.

Holding up her hand, Maddie imagined that it was the only corporeal thing in the universe, and plunged it into the lovely leather couch.


	8. Chapter 8

Standing outside the door, Jack sighed and pressed his forehead against its smooth surface. He closed his eyes and concentrated on breathing, on the feel of the door against his skin and the familiar hazmat that covered the majority of his body. Plain, normal things that would not change no matter who was half ghost or how they became infused with ectoplasm.

Pipes in the wall groaned, and water started running in the room next door.

Showers were normal, as well. Ghosts didn't take showers – they simply phased off whatever grime they managed to pick up. Maddie was taking a shower, and this fact alone contributed greatly to keeping the man calm right now. So long as she still acted like a human, Jack wouldn't have lost his wife. Hybrid she may be, but she was still his Maddie. They had worked through problems in the past, and they would work through this one as well.

As much as he wished to dwell on it right now, Maddie's condition wasn't the main priority.

Jack knocked on the door, and was rewarded by a startled "Just a second!" Before Jack could wonder what the boy could possibly need a moment to do, the cracks in the doorframe were illuminated by a flash of light.

"Okay, come in."

Jack twisted the handle, pushing the door open just enough for him to slip inside.

They were in a tiny laundry. Squashed in the floor space between the washing machine, the dryer, and the wall, was a nest of blankets and cushions. Phantom was folded into this pile, comic books strewn about near his feet and a half-empty bottle of ectoplasm sitting beside him.

The halfa stiffened. "Mr Fenton-"

"Call me Jack. What on _earth_ are you doing?" Jack demanded, sinking into a crouch at the edge of the blanket nest.

Phantom shrugged. "It's more private than the living room," he muttered, cheeks flushing green.

He looked exhausted, and the bruises had now bloomed across a good half of the kid's face. Jack felt horrible just looking at them. "Did I hurt you badly?" he blurted, immediately berating himself for changing the topic.

"Not really," the halfa mused. "I get hurt worse in a lot of ghost fights."

"I don't see you covered in bruises," Jack countered.

"I heal fast."

When the hunter didn't respond, Phantom furrowed his brow. "Is there anything you need?"

Jack stared at the teenager that he had unwittingly turned into some sort of spectral half breed. "I'm the one who should be asking you that," he whispered. "Mads told me everything, and… Phantom, I'm _so_ sorry."

"Hey, you only punched me a bit, I'm fine!" The kid gave a shaky laugh, but the movement obviously hurt. Phantom's smile morphed into a grimace as he reached up to massage his chest, arms unfolding from where they had been tucked against his sides like some origami trick.

Jack swallowed thickly. "Mads told me what our portal did to you," he said. Meeting Phantom's eyes, the hunter put as much remorse as he could into his next words. "I'm really, really sorry, Phantom.

The teen's mouth twisted into a sad smile. "Yeah, you're not to blame. I'd say that I'm sorry for going down there and getting turned into a halfa, but I'm really not."

Well, this was an interesting development. "You mean-?"

"Yeah!" Phantom nodded enthusiastically. "I used to think that I'd give anything to be human again, but a while ago I realised that I wouldn't give up my ghost half for anything. I use my powers to help a lot of people, and they're such a big part of me that I can't even remember what it feels like to be human anymore."

Letting out a deep breath, Jack felt himself grow significantly calmer. If Phantom's life wasn't ruined by Jack's carelessness, then there was really no reason to beat himself up over it.

Furrowing his brow, Jack decided that since _that_ was settled, it was time to move onto the next topic. Reaching up, he switched on the clothes dryer.

Phantom stared at the hunter as though he had lost his mind. "Okay, I'm used to you doing strange things, but why'd you just do that? There's not even anything in it!"

Jack pushed aside the unsettling thought that Phantom was obviously very familiar with his erratic behaviour. To think that the halfa was in and out of the hunter's life was a disconcerting thought, threatening to rock Jack's world if he focused too much on its implications.

"I don't want Mads to hear us," he confessed, trying to ignore the small voice screaming in his mind that Jack encountered this kid's human persona frequently.

Phantom tilted his head, something about his expression, diction, and mannerisms maddeningly familiar in a way that the hunter couldn't pinpoint. "What's there to overhear?"

Jack leaned forwards until he was practically in the teenager's lap. "Mads is a halfa now, isn't she?"

The boy sagged, suddenly looking incredibly weary. "Yeah," he croaked, eyes glistening. "I'm really, _really_ sorry, Jack, but I… I _had_ to save her! I couldn't let her die!" Phantom wailed, a tear spilling over the rim of his eyelid and tracing a track down his bruised cheek. He seemed to be pleading for justification for some heinous crime, as though if Jack could just _understand_, then everything would work itself out.

"Shhh," Jack soothed, using a thumb to gently wipe away the boy's tear. "I know, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Thank you for saving my wife," he said, making the overused phrases sound as sincere as possible.

Phantom sniffed, swiping the back of his hand over his eyes. "You're not mad at me?"

"Never," Jack whispered, sliding backwards a bit to give the boy some space, "but I need to know if being a halfa will affect Mads in any major way."

Phantom winced. "Um, about that…" He shifted uneasily, a hand automatically moving to massage his chest again.

"What is it?" Jack pressed. The teen's hesitation terrified him, and thoughts of every possible problem with powerful obsessions sprang to the forefront of the man's mind.

"When her powers are fully stable, in about ten years, she'll become immortal."

"What…?" the hunter breathed, feeling the colour drain from his face. "Yeah," Phantom sighed, dropping his gaze to the blanket draped over his lap, "she'll stop aging."

Jack's chest constricted painfully, his eyes filling with tears immediately at the thought of what both he and Maddie would have to go through so long as he remained mortal. "I thought it'd be something like that," the man whispered in a voice that shook.

Phantom nodded miserably, keeping his eyes steadily on the blanket as gloved fingers kneaded his chest. He grimaced, and Jack jumped as a ring of light burst into existence around Phantom's waist.

The halfa's pained expression morphed to one of terror, and he doubled over with a gasp. The ring shuddered for several moments, briefly splitting into two before flickering out.

The room was silent except for Phantom's heavy breathing and the whirring of the clothes dryer.

"What was that?" Jack demanded once his brain calmed down enough to form coherent thoughts.

"'M tired," Phantom groaned. "I'll have to turn human again soon."

"The light turns you human?"

"More or less," the teen muttered, slumping back against the cushions.

Wow. Jack found himself grinning at this new revelation. Phantom didn't blame him, and now that he thought about it, the man realised something amazing: he, Jack Fenton, had managed to create a real live superhero! This kid was the perfect ghost hunting weapon, he had epic powers, and he was a super nice guy to boot. The thought filled him with childish glee, but the hunter did his best to suppress his excitement – it wouldn't do to scare the teen. "That's so cool," Jack announced, attempting nonchalance. "No wonder you decided to be a superhero – you've already got the outfit, the powers, _and _the awesome transformation sequence!"

Phantom chuckled weakly. "Of course you'd see it that way," he wheezed, both hands now pressing hard against his chest.

"Do you need some painkillers?" Jack asked, that small display of pain bringing his thoughts back down to a more practical level. Maddie would be proud.

The boy shook his head. "Nah, I'm off those super strong ones now – I can't take more of the lower-strength ones until dinner. I'll live." Phantom's mouth quirked as though he had just told a joke, and Jack supposed that in some morbid fashion he had.

Back to the real reason that Jack was there.

"Phantom, I have a big favour to ask of you. Don't do it until you're healed, though."

The halfa frowned. "What is it? I'll help you if I can."

Jack fisted his fingers in the blanket, locking eyes with this bizarre teenager. "Turn me into a halfa."

Phantom swallowed visibly, gaze as steadfast as the hunter's. They sat still for several moments, and although he wanted to fidget, Jack held as still as he could; it was as though moving would cause him to fail some sort of test. A muscle in Phantom's jaw worked as he chewed on the inside of his lip. "If that's what you really want," the halfa conceded after what felt like an age of deliberation. "I have no right to keep you mortal when Maddie's not."

Jack felt like he was going to explode from gratitude. He wasn't going to be kept apart from his soul mate! Jack could scream the news to the entire world and it still wouldn't convey the depth of his joy. "Thank you!" the hunter cried, throwing his arms around the boy's shoulders.

Phantom yelped, and Jack pulled back as quickly as he could, apologising profusely.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," the kid groaned, waving a hand dismissively. "Now, since you turned on the dryer, I'm guessing that Maddie doesn't know about this? I suggest you go tell her now – secrets can get real big real fast, and all of a sudden you have no clue how you could possibly tell anyone."

Jack guessed that Phantom knew from experience, but decided not to push the matter. "Your secret's safe whenever you want to tell us," he promised before flicking off the dryer and getting to his feet.

Phantom nodded. "Thanks, I really appreciate that."

The shower turned off, and Jack sent the halfa a sheepish grin before heading to the door.

The doorway was scattered with the textbooks that Phantom had knocked over earlier. Kneeling across the doorjamb, the hunter gathered the thick and somewhat familiar volumes into his arms, staking them neatly back into place.

Light illuminated the room behind him, followed by a groan that lacked the unnatural echo that accompanied any noise Phantom made.

Taking a deep breath, Jack screwed his eyes shut and got to his feet, feeling behind him for the doorhandle. He grasped the knob pulled it closed blindly, not trusting himself to open his eyes again until the door clicked shut.

Letting out the breath that he had been holding, Jack mentally congratulated himself for resisting the burning urge to watch the kid turn from something dead to something that was miraculously _alive_. Until Phantom was ready to tell him, the hunter would respect his privacy.

Despite this new resolution, the closed door was far too tempting.

Whistling jovially, the hunter ambled down the hallway before he could succumb to curiosity, wondering if Phantom had any fudge in the fridge.

To his utter delight, there was an entire platter of his favourite chocolate fudge, complete with almonds and a can of whipped cream.


	9. Chapter 9

Maddie was downright livid.

Jack sagged in his seat, picking half-heartedly at the remnants of the once-glorious platter of fudge. He watched as Maddie paced circles around the other side of the table, working herself up into a right state. Despite the pain that throbbed through her body, the woman shouted for all she was worth, gesticulating wildly and occasionally jabbing a finger in her husband's direction.

"I didn't bring you here so you could decide to go through the same thing as me!" she exclaimed, swatting at burning eyes with frustrated movements. How dare he? They had a duty to their family, but that obviously meant _nothing_ to the man sitting across the table.

Jack sagged further, sliding down so that his chin was almost level with the platter. "I'm sorry," he whined, acting in similitude of a dejected puppy, "but when Phantom said you're now immortal…"

"Did you even _think_ about Danny and Jazz?" the woman snapped, slamming her palms down on the table as a few rebellious tears slipped free. "What's it going to do to _them?!_"

"We don't have to tell them," Jack responded in a voice that was so quiet it sounded like it would break if startled. "Jazz'll graduate in a few months, Danny in two years, and they'll have both moved out in the few years after. We don't have to explain or even tell them, Mads. They won't be around to be affected."

"Like hell they won't! We have a family, and they'll still be in our lives and us in theirs after they've moved out!" Maddie screamed, tearing her hands through her hair. She stiffened, her body suddenly seeming to forget what gravity was.

The woman rose through the air, ending up with her back pressed against the ceiling. Panic seized her for a moment, and some part of Maddie was absolutely terrified because _flying was definitely more than she could handle right now,_ but then the panic and pain and fear all contributed to her fury like gasoline on a fire.

Pressing her palms uselessly against the ceiling, Maddie continued to shout as though floating uncontrollably was the most normal thing in the world. "All you care about is yourself, not giving a damn about how badly this could affect our kids! I can't believe you're being so selfish!" The pain was increasing, and Maddie hiccupped through her tears as her breathing caught and stopped.

Light was suddenly everywhere as Maddie's chest constricted painfully, cold exploding through her limbs. The woman clutched at her middle, moaning. "Damn it," she hissed, tilting her head forwards so that blue bangs hid her face.

She was a ghost.

This sudden and unnatural transition from living to dead blew all thoughts from the huntress' mind, and she curled her arms around her midriff, grasping heaving sides tightly as though trying to hold herself together.

This was impossible.

Gasping for breath as though she had just sprinted halfway across town. A heartbeat that throbbed in her ears. _Pain._

She was a monster.

Maddie pushed those thoughts away, sending them back to where they lurked at the edges of her mind. She was still Maddie Fenton, loving mother and wife. Phantom was still just a teenager full of good intentions and bad puns. The two of them might not be human, but one thing was certain: they were _not_ monsters.

"I'm sorry," Jack whispered again, meeting her gaze unflinchingly. "I'm a coward, but at least I can admit that I'm not strong."

"What?" the woman demanded, staring through tears and the strands of electric blue hair that clung to wet cheeks.

Sitting up a little straighter, Jack swallowed thickly as he traced patterns in the cream and fudge debris. "I'm a good inventor, but a horrible hunter," he announced in a voice that trembled. "I'm bad at hunting because I'm always so scared that I'll never come back home, and if I died then I'd leave you."

Taking a deep breath, the hunter's voice hitched and his own tears broke free. "That's why I always follow you, even that time when you went to help your sister celebrate her divorce and you obviously didn't want me to come. Whether I'm a ghost or a human, I love you so much that you'll always be my obsession, and if you're now immortal…" Sniffing, the man wiped his nose on his sleeve. "I love you too much to ever leave you, and I thought you loved me enough to never let me go."

His words hit her like a punch to the jaw, ears ringing and thoughts scattered. It took a moment to collect herself, and that hit had been enough to snap the woman back into perspective.

She was being stupid.

Their children were important, but Maddie remembered the day her parents had sat down with their two teenage daughters to have a long and serious talk.

The girls' brother was in jail, and nothing had looked like it would be okay ever again.

_There's one thing you two need to know,_ their parents had told them.

_Children go astray sometimes, so badly that you can't get them back. A lot of families fall apart because of this, but ours won't. We're strong._

_I'll tell you why._

_Because your mother and I treat our love for each other as the most important thing in the world. And if you girls ever fall in love, make sure that it's a love like that, or don't bother keeping the bloke around because, likely as not, he won't be there to support you when you most need it. Family is important, but in the end, when your kids are all grown up and are having their own glorious lives, the person you'll still have around should be the most important person to you ever. Never forget that._

Only now, with Jack wholly prepared to give up everything that he _was_, did Maddie understand.

"I love you, too," she responded, feeling so damned _guilty_ all of a sudden. "Sorry for yelling." Her fingers curling tighter into the blue-turned-scarlet hazmat, Maddie felt all her anger drain away. Suddenly exhausted, the woman clutched her sides and shivered on the ceiling. "Jack," she whimpered, "get me down, please."

The man gulped, lurching to his feet. "Um, I don't… Just hold tight, I'll go get Phantom."

"Hurry," Maddie sobbed as he sprinted from the room. She felt washed-out and exhausted, realising that this was the first time they had fought over something in such a heated manner since that anniversary debacle a couple of years back.

It was petty, pathetic, and unnecessary. They knew each other like nobody else, and they both knew better than that. She had to be strong now – no more fighting over silly things, no more taking Jack for granted.

Their family was already falling apart anyway; Danny drifted further away every month, closing himself off and often leaving the house for days on end. As much as the woman tried, he was slipping through her grasp.

She would still hold onto her children for as long as they let her, but the person that she would never let go of was Jack. Finally realising this, Maddie felt herself settle into a much calmer state of mind.

Phantom sidled into the room, dull green eyes meeting hers as he sighed. "Oh, _Maddie._"

He looked so sad, gaze raking over her new form repeatedly. It was almost as if the kid looked enough times, what he was seeing might magically prove itself to be nothing but a dream.

Maddie could definitely relate. For a moment she wished that she had a mirror, but the thought of what she might see made her glad that she didn't.

Jack filled the doorway behind him, clasping the teen's shoulder. "Can you get her down?"

Phantom raised and lowered his free shoulder. "I can try," he admitted weakly, brushing off Jack's hand and trudging around the table to stand near where Maddie floated.

The teen practically collapsed into a chair. "Forgive me if I don't join you up there," he groaned. "Now, flying's like intangibility, or any of your other powers – it's psychological, so-"

"Why are you still so tired?" Maddie interrupted, wiping at the tears that still lingered on her cheeks. "I'm not anywhere near that bad."

The boy sent her a look that Maddie supposed was meant to convey irritation, but only made him appear more exhausted. "It takes a lot of energy to stay in ghost form all the time," he grumbled.

"Not to mention that it can't be comfortable sleeping on the laundry floor," Jack chimed in.

Phantom glared, and Maddie swallowed, staring at the teen in horror. "You _what?_"

"It's private in there," Phantom ground through gritted teeth, "and this place has only one bed."

"Phantom," the woman growled, "as soon as I get down from this ceiling you are going to bed and getting a good night's sleep in your human form."

He raised a bruised eyebrow, and Maddie felt a sudden jolt of unsettling familiarity.

For a moment she could have sworn that it was Danny standing there.

Maddie blinked, and the moment was gone. He was Phantom again, a whole lot of insufferable attitude bundled up in hazmat and a quick tongue. She steeled herself, preparing for the backchat and argument that would most likely be on its way.

Phantom chuckled before curling in on himself with a grimace. "Well, we have to get you down first," he responded, somewhat surprising the huntress by his lack of objection. White light flickered at his waist for a moment, and Maddie could have sworn that he let loose a sob before the brightness disappeared again.

After her own transformation, she knew what that light meant.

"Alright," the woman sighed. "Tell me how to get down, please."

Jack had moved to stand beneath his wife, stretching his arms out comically. "I'll catch you!" he promised. Maddie smiled fondly at her soul mate before concentrating on what the younger halfa was telling her about remembering and forgetting gravity.

It was easier than intangibility. Maybe because she was in ghost form this time, or possibly due to the fact that the scientist had already had to alter her way of thinking in order to control her body's tangible state. The ease was most likely a combination of both of those factors, along with a calmer mind and an environment that felt a lot more familiar.

Whatever the reason, it only took a few moments for Maddie to drop into her grinning husband's arms.

Phantom's rings flickered into existence again for a handful of heartbeats.

"You'll turn human when you get tired," the boy groaned, levering himself into a standing position as Jack set Maddie on her own feet. "If you want to change back earlier, um, you have to sort of just _change…_ Reach for that warm spark inside you … Ugh, I can't explain it. You sort of can't do it until you've experienced it, so just wait for your body to change back on its own." He had lurched to the door as he spoke, leaning heavily against the frame.

"Go get in the bed," Maddie ordered. "I'm going in the laundry to get whatever bedding you've got in there, so the only way to keep your secret is to sleep in the bed."

Phantom took one look at her face before obviously realising that the woman was serious. Slumping his shoulders, the boy staggered across the hallway, disappearing through the bedroom door.

Light shone beneath it, followed by a groan and the creaking of bedsprings.

"If only Danny were so obedient," Maddie sighed.

Jack slung an arm around her waist, planting a kiss against the top of his wife's head as he hugged her from behind. "We can only hope," he whispered. "Now, what're we going to do with the stuff in the laundry?"


	10. Chapter 10

Jack crowed in triumph, throwing his hands up in the air. "You did it!"

Sitting upside-down on the ceiling, Maddie smiled as she pushed the final thumb tack into the plaster. She let go of the blanket's edge, allowing it to hang from where it was pinned. It was the final 'wall' to hang around the couch, effectively shielding it from the view of anyone who entered the room. A little more elaborate than the pillow forts she had built with her kids, but with what Maddie knew of Phantom's stubborn nature, he would have returned to the laundry floor when he woke up. At least this way, the kid would have somewhere a bit more comfortable to rest.

"Is everything secure?" Jack swept the fabric aside, testing if it could handle the strain of someone passing through this makeshift tent of curtains.

"Yeah." Maddie frowned as her stomach clenched. "I think I should get down now – I'm feeling a little shaky," she confessed, sinking to land on the floor.

Jack clapped a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, you look a little sick there. Were you flying for too long?"

The woman shook her head, leaning into her husband gratefully. Exhaustion hit her in a sudden wave, sending white rings washing over her body and returning the woman to her human form. "I haven't eaten anything since that pizza," she said, ignoring the transformation – if she treated it like something perfectly normal, it could be dealt with later. "I'm really hungry."

"To the kitchen!" Jack bellowed, pointing with a flourish. "You get comfortable, and I'll whip up a storm!"

Maddie smiled fondly as he disappeared through the dining room door with all the grace of a charging rhinoceros.

"You know that you can't eat what he makes you," a small voice rasped from beside her.

To her credit, Maddie didn't jump at the halfa's sudden appearance. "You only went to bed a couple of hours ago," she scolded, turning to face the teen. "Do I have to drag you back there?"

Phantom ducked his head. "It's sort of hard to sleep with Jack being so noisy," he countered, "and I need some ectoplasm."

His voice was still uncharacteristically quiet. Limbs shook slightly as the boy hugged himself, gloved fingers digging into his sides. His face was pinched with pain and fatigue, but at least the bruises had already faded away thanks to the halfa's fast healing. Maddie gently placed an arm around his shoulders. "I'm guessing that I need some of that as well," she responded. "I'm really hungry."

Phantom allowed himself to be guided through the dining room door. "Yeah. If you can keep that down, you're good to eat normal food in a couple of hours."

Maddie deposited the boy in a seat, continuing towards the double doors reminiscent of a restaurant. "The stuff in the bottles in the fridge?" At his nod, she pushed the kitchen doors open, quirking a smile at the sight of Jack covered in flour.

"It's not ready yet!" the man screeched, hunching protectively over an assortment of ingredients that he had spread over the massive bench.

"I'm just getting some ectoplasm," Maddie reassured him as she headed for the fridge. It would take Jack a couple of hours to manage to create anything edible anyway, so there was really no reason to let him know that she wasn't allowed to eat just yet.

Grabbing a bottle that was already open and a couple of glasses from the draining rack beside the sink, the huntress returned to her saviour. Phantom seemed to brighten when he saw her, and for a moment, Maddie envisioned the kid sitting at her dining table back in Amity Park.

The thought wasn't as ludicrous as it would have seemed a week ago.

The teen accepted his cup eagerly, downing its glowing contents in one go and pouring himself another serving instantly.

"You seem to be holding your form better now," Maddie remarked.

"Well, I didn't sleep, but I rested enough to gather a little energy."

Maddie nodded – that made sense. This new piece of information landed in the jumble of other things that she had learned from the child in front of her, shoved to the corner of her mind for investigation at a later date.

She had all the time in the world, after all.

The ectoplasm in her own glass glowed as green as the ghost kid's eyes, and the woman swallowed dryly. Revulsion sent a shudder down her spine, and as Maddie stared at her beverage, she was far more inclined to fling it across the room than drink it.

"Small sips are best to start."

Maddie wasn't sure when Phantom had moved to stand beside her, but she was glad as his hand closed around her wrist. The glass was guided to her lips, and a gloved hand supported it as its rim pressed against the crease of her mouth.

"Come on," he coaxed, tilting the cup so that its contents barely graced her mouth before pulling away again. "Just a little taste, and I promise that it won't be nearly as bad as you think it is."

Her lips were covered in a layer of freezing slime. It made Maddie want to scrub her mouth with a pumice stone until any cell that had come into contact with this horrid stuff was removed from her body.

She had to calm down. Taking a deep breath through her nose, Maddie reminded herself that she was now biologically _made_ of this stuff to the point where it gave her ghost powers. She was weak, starving, and growing a little dizzy. This was really no time for squeamishness.

Before she could stop herself, Maddie licked the ectoplasm off her lips.

It was electric. Like putting a battery to your tongue, but far better to taste.

Phantom smiled shakily, guiding Maddie to lift the glass to her mouth again. "See?" he asked in a voice that quavered. "It's really not that bad. I've got these filter things that collect ectoplasm from the Ghost Zone's atmosphere, so it's pure and clean. And it really doesn't taste that bad, sort of like lemons but sweet or something? I dunno, I usually mix it with juice or some type of soda. There's this one guy, that evil halfa I told you about, who likes to mix his ectoplasm with wine and drink it with dinner."

A small, detached part of Maddie's mind noted that he rambled whenever he got emotional. That thought was also filed away for later – right now, all Maddie could focus on was the glorious fluid that slid down her throat with a viscosity somewhere between honey and ice-cream.

It was heavenly.

Phantom continued to control her wrist, never allowing Maddie to take more than a sip at a time. "You can drink as much as you want later," he promised. "I just have to make sure that you're okay with this, though I think a ghost form is pretty good indication that you'll be fine. Still, I threw up whatever I ate for the first couple of days being a halfa. I couldn't even drink water, and eventually I got so hungry that when I ended up in the lab and saw the ectoplasm filling up the portal's filter, I ate all of it in one go, complete with all its contaminants. It helped with the hunger, but the contamination made my new powers go all wonky."

With the glass empty, Maddie slid into a seat. She ran her finger around the rim, collecting the remaining fluid and sucking it off delightedly. "That was amazing," she admitted, more to herself than the teenager.

Phantom nodded in agreement, pouring himself a third glass and nursing it between cupped hands. "This stuff is the only reason I've been strong enough to beat some of the really powerful ghosts," he confessed. "I try to keep at least one bottle near me all the time, and I phase soft drinks out of their cans and put this in instead to try to hide what I'm actually drinking. My friends carry cans for me as well, which is great because I'm nearly always with them. We have to be really careful though, because once this guy stole a can, and he got ectoplasm poisoning and even though it was really funny it wasn't, y'know?"

"You're rambling," Maddie interrupted, drawing her finger across the glass again to collect any residue that she might have missed the first time.

She remembered that. Dash Baxter, the school's top athlete and Maddie's main suspect for the bruises that covered her son, had mysteriously collapsed several months ago shortly after lunch. By the time he got to the hospital he was glowing a sickly yellow, and it had taken all of the Fentons' extraction equipment and a lot of blood blossom syrup to cure the thick-headed boy.

Ectoplasm poisoning, but until now, nobody had any clue how the kid had managed to ingest an almost lethal dose.

Running her tongue over the back of her teeth, Maddie wondered how stupid he had to be to drink something that glowed unnaturally. Honestly, it even _tasted_ dangerous!

Phantom shifted on his feet. "Sorry," he mumbled.

Maddie blinked, recalling her comment. "Not at all. It's… It's nice to talk to you without looking down the barrel of a gun."

The teen swallowed, casting his eyes to the floor. "Yeah," he choked, sidling towards the door. "It's really… nice."

He bolted out of the room, and Maddie found herself smiling. Sure, the kid was sometimes a little strange, but years of having ghost powers and being hunted down by humans and ghosts alike would do that to just about anyone. Before Jack had accidentally blown it up several years ago, the cat they had adopted from the shelter had acted in much the same manner.

The bottle sat in the table, still one-third full of ectoplasm. It glimmered invitingly, and the woman swallowed before curling her fingers into fists and getting to her own feet.

Phantom had said to wait, so wait she would.

Padding to the living room in search of her abandoned book, Maddie smiled at the soft, human breathing emanating from within the blanket fort. "Good night, Phantom," she whispered, tucking the book under arm and flicking off the light.

His sleepy murmur morphed into a contented sigh as the woman pulled the door shut behind her, minimising as much of Jack's noise as possible. Just before the door clicked closed, a quiet good night in a very familiar voice wafted from the darkness.

Her mind was obviously playing tricks on her, so Maddie pretended not to hear.


End file.
